The Predator
by DuskBat
Summary: The souls have begun to colonize a new planet, but the natives are brutal and give sacrifices to a 'god' of theirs. When the souls are in power, they stop the sacrifices, but the god may be more than just a legend...
1. Chapter 1

This FF is inspired by 'The Host' by Stephenie Meyer. I've basically used the same species as is in the book (The 'souls') but the storyline, setting, and characters etc are completely different. I've tried to make it kinda original :)

The main characters are all of an alien species, and since the writers guild says I can't post drawings, you'll have to use your imagination along with my description which I will try to make as detailed as possible. I also apologise for any grammar and/or spelling mistakes; I will try to keep these to a minimum but a few are inevitable. If you see any do not hesitate to point them out to me!

Also, please feel free to give me constructive criticism, as I'd like to improve my writing skills, so any help would be appreciated.

Warning: I do tend to write rather a lot, and the chapters are quite long in comparison to that of some of the other FFs here.

So, without further ado,

Chapter 1

It was dark. As always. I could not feel, could not see, anything, just the claustrophobic darkness that pressed in from every side.

The darkness did not bother me. It was a strange sensation, being aware yet completely neutral to everything around me: I did not care about the darkness, for I knew nothing beyond it, or before it.

The tiniest, minute part of my mind knew what was truly happening. Where I was, where I had been, and why. But it was so painful, so difficult to remember, that I found the larger part of me told me it was not worth the effort, to surrender to unconsciousness. The majority of the time, that was what I did. Sleep was easy in this drifting blankness, the most comfortable state to be in.

Time was impossible to measure here: I could have been under for seconds, months, or centuries. There was nothing to measure the passing of time against, and the numbness of the black made me unable, no, _unwilling_ to count in my head.

An endless and immeasurable period of time later, the blackness shifted. It was no longer as dark, nor as mindnumbing as it had been. The section of my mind that had rebelled before told me that the end of the dark was near; soon I would open my senses into a new, unfamiliar environment. If I had owned a body, it would have been tensed in anticipation. As it was, every nerve in my mind was on edge, awaiting this new world. Then, with a sudden jolt, the blankness vanished altogether and I was completely disorientated by the flash of brightness that was the extreme opposite to the black.

I felt entirely the opposite, too. Instead of neutral, I felt annoyed, aggravated that I had been sucked so abruptly from the peaceful dark. A few short moments later, the sensation strengthened. Not only did I feel more angry, but much more uncomfortable, in a strange way that I did not understand. The discomfort became sharper, until it was a kind of pain. I felt like I was deprived of something, something I needed, and it _hurt_.

Then, inside my head, there was a tiny 'click' as I became fully aware. The numbness of the dark (What I now recognised as anaesthesia) had completely worn off: memories came flooding back and comprehension lit up my consciousness. I was on a new planet; I'd volunteered to be one of the first settlers, so they'd frozen me, and shipped me over here. I was unfrozen a few minutes ago, and that could only mean one thing: I was about to be inserted into my new body.


	2. Chapter 2

I apologise for the length of this chapter, I know it's reeeally long without much actually happening. Hope you like it anyway!

Chapter 2

The first emotion that I registered, as I searched around this new world with my new senses for the first time, was complete and utter shock. This body was so different to the previous one, it was disorientating and unsettling. I had a new sense this time, one I had never experienced before, that seemed to absorb light and allow me to interpret the surroundings. My body told me I was _seeing_. I could feel input from another sense, too, but this one was not so new. My skin sampled the air around me (For it was gas, not liquid, and although I preferred marine creatures I did not mind) so that I found I could tell where I was, and what was in the space around me, even without the other sense. (My instincts told me the first sense was sight, the other, smell)

As I wrapped the rest of my tentacles around the host's brain, I gained control of movement and I decided to see what this new body looked like. It was a strange sensation, seeing things rather than echo-locating them like the Alsharna or sensing them like the Fiore. However, as this body was new, the instinct was strong, so I did not have to make any effort for my new brain to lift my head and interpret the light signals that my eyes received.

The body of this alien was more familiar than the mind: on either side of my short, leathery body, there were two limbs which I recognised as sails which allowed flight through the air. (Wings, in this language) They were large, easily twice the size of the entire body of the previous species I had inhabited. They consisted of one, long, three-jointed bone each, which ended in two phalanges tipped with vicious claws, and a thin membrane stretching between the bone and the sides of my torso. The consistency of the membrane was identical to that of the rest of my rough skin. I could feel the raw potential of power in my thick chest muscles, and I deduced that the gravity must be strong on this planet for me to need such strength to keep above ground.

I felt I had two legs near my rear end, but no limbs at the front other than the four huge wings. The wings did not seem out of proportion, or make me feel top-heavy, [i]I[/i] was huge. The whole body was. The legs did not feel strong, and I sensed that I would be spending most of my time aloft. They, too, had phalanges at the end, but three instead of two, and they were spaced widely apart, joined by a membrane similar to, but not identical to, the ones on my wings. This skin felt thicker, more robust.

The colour of my skin startled me. It was a hue that I had no name for, (This was not unusual: I was used to all new colours at each new planet because the light split differently if it came from a different sun) but in my peripheral vision (I was surprised by how quickly I took to this new sense with no trouble at all) I saw the exact same colour in the native plants. Usually this meant that the creature needed to hide: it was prey. And usually we only ever inhabited species that were the top predator, because although we would never dream of killing another sentient being, it was awful to have to live your life in fear, hiding. And then every so often somebody would get caught, and have nowhere to go as their body died, them with it.

I shuddered at the thought of feeling the death of your body, and knowing that you were next. Our hosts acted as a spacesuit: it translated the normally unbreathable air into something just as pleasant as the atmosphere on the Origin planet that we came from. Without this function, a soul would slowly and painfully suffocate, not for lack of air, but for the wrong kind of it. It was the worst death I could imagine.

I felt an almost intangible sensation of completeness as I locked my last tentacle into place. I was now in full control of this creature, and it felt good to have a body once again. However, I had a million and one questions buzzing around in this surprisingly spacious brain. Relying purely on instinct, I shifted myself carefully into the most comfortable position for resting. I supported myself mostly on my legs, but helping to keep my balance was the second pair of wings. I felt that this was not the position in which I would be sleeping, because my inferior legs would be unable to stand the weight of my body for so long. Carefully, I took in my surroundings for the first time.

I was not on the ground. I was high above it, easily the height of three of this body from the powdery-looking soil. I was in the boughs of a plant, a large, sturdy-feeling plant. It's limbs were long and flat, so I guessed that it used photosynthesis to create it's food; the larger the surface area of the plant, the more food it could produce. This structure also made it a convenient place for the creatures of this planet to dwell: high up enough that no land-bound predator could make it up here unless they were skilled at climbing, with a consistent food source and a flat platform to rest on. It was ideal. Of course, this was assuming that I ate plants. I shied away from the thought of killing anything, no matter how insignificant, and prayed that my assumption was correct.

It was night-time, and from the memories of the host I knew that this planet had two natural satellites, both only visible when the sun had dipped below the horizon. One was formed entirely of gas (The previous owner of this body had had no knowledge of this; I guessed it from their memories of seeing it and the swirling, bright surface) and the other was rock and ice, possibly a condensation of a belt that used to circle the planet. The lack of sunlight also made it more difficult to use the new sense - this was only logical, absorbing light was more difficult when there was less of it - however this species was mainly active during the night, and so had adapted by evolving large, complex eyes. The circumstance that blinded other creatures barely hindered this one. This worried me. Another sign that it was prey. My new face crinkled in an expression of worry and discomfort.

I then surveyed the rest of the plant platform, looking for the soul who had performed the insertion to ask more about the alien I now inhabited. I saw them at the opposite end of the bough, near where it became gradually thinner then tapered to a stop. There were three, all in the same position I was in now. The memory of the host informed me that one was an infant, and two were mature adults. Not that the age of their current body mattered. The child could truly be millennia older than the others, me included.

Cautiously I hobbled closer to them (Moving over the land was awkward for me - the only way possible was to put all your weight on the second pair of wings and swing yourself forward, like crutches) and formed my first word in this language. I was relieved that at least this species had a proper, complex language and did not communicate with subtle sounds and body postures as one other species - the Berolsen - did. It was strangely simple to create the series of clicks that meant:

"Hello" and send them off in the direction of the other souls. It was one of the adults who answered. The pitch of the clicks informed me that she was female.

"Welcome to our planet, Song Echoes. Or, at least, that is the rough translation of your previous name. What do you wish to be known as here?" She had a pleasant voice, and I took an immediate liking to her.

"Echo seems a nice enough name. What's yours?"

"My name is Latea. This is Ice Melts in the Sun, and Bones Shatter." Ice, the other adult, gave one curt nod as his name was mentioned, and Bone grinned widely at me. "However," Latea continued, "This planet is not properly colonized yet, so we will have to pretend to be our hosts, to avoid discovery. We learnt much from the great losses on the Blind World." I flinched from the memory of the native creatures starving themselves when they discovered our existence, preferring to die rather than become one of us. We would never make that mistake again. "So, to others, you must be known as Flight, or Flight Through the Forest, and I am Red Waves Breaking, Red for short."

"You must call me Moon Rising in the East." I automatically felt a shiver of fear run down my spine at the sound of Ice's voice: it felt like he might hurt me, though there was no threat in his words, only his tone. Bone, his deep voice at odds with the mirth in his tone, told me that his body's name was Starlit Night. I nodded, memorizing all six names.

"So, what is the name of this species?"

It was Latea, already appearing to be the leader of the little group, who answered.

"The Ulkra."


	3. Chapter 3

I know that the stuff in this chapter seems unnecessarily complex, but trust me, it needs to be for the story to work later on.

Chapter 3

"So The Ulkra live in... A sort of colony? Like the ice cities on the planet of the bears?" I asked. Only half of my attention was on the information being given to me by Latea, and my answers. The other half was marvelling at how different moving through the air was when you could see. We were flying, faster than I had ever seen anything move before, faster even than the ships we used to transport ourselves from planet to planet. I had discovered that the huge, hulking chest muscles I had felt before were not to help keep above ground because the gravity was so high; they were to enable us to flap the wings at incredible speeds, so fast that the actual movement was impossible to discern: there was only four blurs around the sides of your body. This method of flying, apart from achieving hypersonic speeds, allowed quick manoeuvring and hairpin turns. It was exhilarating, this entirely new experience that I was as skilled at as if I'd been doing it all my life.

In addition to this, I soon realised the necessity of sight on this planet. The other senses I'd had before were utilitarian at best in comparison. They allowed you to tell where you were, and where other objects were in relation to you, but they did not provide the prefect clarity that sight did. And here, you needed clarity. There was so _much_, this planet was so _full_ of flora and rock and earth and ice and... If you hadn't been paying attention, for even a second, you could go rocketing into something, and be reduced to a pulp. And it wasn't just that I needed the sight, I liked it. It added a whole new dimension to your experience of the world. A pleasant, no, a beautiful dimension.

"A colony, yes. An ice city, no." I'd all but forgotten my question when Latea's reply broke into my thoughts. "This colony... It's very strange. It has an immensely strict and complex hierarchy, and two leaders who both create rules, and enforce them. I am one of the... second highest ranking Ulkras; we are lead by the 2 leaders, there are 10 of us, and we each choose 2 thirds, so there's 20 of them, and they choose 2 fourths each. The rest are not part of the ranking. There are an infinite number of 'zeroes', as we call them, depending on how many children are born, and how many die each year. Overall, there's more than 100 in the colony." My already huge eyes widened as I tried to picture so many of the bulky Ulkras in one place at one time. "When one Ulkra who is part of the hierarchy dies, or becomes a cripple, one of the two it chose to be one of the lower ranking Ulkra will step up to take it's place. Usually there is no disagreement as to which of the two it should be, as one is much more suitable than the other, but if there is, the leaders will decide." This was a difficult concept to wrap my head around: the souls would never allow such an unequality between the same species, and I'd only ever been on soul-inhabited planets before.

"And what part do I have in this...hierarchy?" I asked, hesitant.

"Oh. Erm..." And then Ice surprised me by answering instead.

"You're a fourth. The third who picked you is Wings on Fire." The hate in his voice struck me just as powerfully as the first time; it was like a physical blow. I was annoyed that I'd have to take part in this unfair system; why couldn't they have chosen a body for me who was a 'zero', as they put it? I voiced my concerns immediately.

"Wouldn't it have been easier for us to stay undiscovered if we'd all been unranked? Then we wouldn't have to learn all their strange customs." Bone, who had been flying far ahead until this point, fell back so that he was right alongside me.

"No, Echo, far from it. The zeroes are the scum of the colony: they're last to eat, they get pushed around, beaten up, and...well..." He seemed to be hesitant to tell me, so I prompted him.

"And...?"

"She'll find out eventually, anyway, Bone, you might as well just tell her." Latea told him. I felt confused, and irritated that they were speaking so mysteriously. There was clearly a secret, a big one.

"It's just that... Every 20 days, as the sun goes down, one of the zeroes is killed. Sacrificed, in honour of their...God, I suppose you could call it, though it's more out of fear than reverence."

There are no words for the utter, disgusted shock I felt at this revelation.

I had to gulp down bile at the thought. They would kill one of their own, their family, somebody who was their sister, brother, uncle or cousin, for some 'spirit' who was probably not real anyway. In that second, if I'd had anywhere to go, I would've turned and flew away from this monstrous colony as fast as I could. But I didn't, so I kept my flight path as steady as I could with how queasy I felt, and silently thanked them for this body as opposed to one of the ones that could just never wake up one morning.

After only a few more moments of flying in silence, I saw it, on the horizon. At first it looked like a strange, new plant that I hadn't seen before. I assumed that this was what it was, until Latea nodded towards it, and said

"There's the colony, up ahead."

"Wow" I breathed. My hate for the colony was momentarily forgotten as I gawked at the intricate structure in front of me. I was made of plant matter, that much I could see, but the rest was completely alien to me. At small, disjointed part of my mind reminded me that of _course_ it was alien, _I _was an alien now.

It rose from the ground like a pole, struck into the earth by a passing giant, completely straight and so tall that even I, flying far above the ground as I was, had to crane my neck to see the top. It was unnatural, yet it looked like it was meant to be there, the thousands of colours so much a part of the landscape that it was almost a plant, just the most glorious one I had ever seen.

And it was glorious. Now that I was closer, I could see that it was quite literally a huge cylinder constructed of what must have been millions of plants, all woven together to create the colony. As I drew even nearer, I saw cavities in the structure, dozens of them, and as I watched one I saw a female Ulkra emerge from one of the holes and take flight, wheeling off into the air with a cry of exultation. I now saw the holes for what they truly were: nests. I gasped in amazement. All of the colony which, according to Latea, was over 100 Ulkras, slept in the same place? But it was so immense, so huge, that there must have been plenty of room, and some to spare.

The colony was right in front of us now, and, acting on instinct, I slanted my wings to loose height, then stopped flapping altogether and landed gracefully on the ground, bending my knees to absorb the impact. The tower loomed above me, menacing now, instead of awe-inspiring. Then, from the nearest nest I heard a welcoming cry, and, seconds later, I saw an unfamiliar female Ulkra land a few yards away.

"Welcome back" She said sweetly.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

She looked the same as the rest of us, apart from her remarkably dark skin, but her very presence caused me discomfort; I felt the odd urge to look away. I wondered who this was, and why she had this effect on me. But I tried my best to keep my poker face: if I should know this Ulkra and I showed confusion, we would be given away for what we truly were. Latea hobbled forward, and I felt a pang of jealousy at how she could make the awkward movement look graceful. Why couldn't I do that?

"Our mission was unsuccessful, leader." It was all I could do to keep my jaw from dropping open in surprise. This ordinary-looking creature was the terrible leader that I had heard about? That would explain my desire to avert my gaze: if she lead us I would have to show submission. Of course, Latea knew that I didn't know, but she kept on as if she saw nothing unusual. "There aren't any visible Flatplants for 500 clicks in any direction. I'm sorry to have disappointed you, but we simply can't expand now: there's nowhere to send the dispersals to where they aren't at risk."

The leader looked upset at this news, but I had no idea why, they might as well have been speaking compete gibberish.

"Well, that's an awful shame. I suppose we'll just have to put restrictions on breeding this year. Overcrowding is our greatest enemy now."

"Look at it this way, leader. At least we are not struggling to live because there are too few of us." The leader nodded, seemingly satisfied with Latea's optimism.

"I'll call a council to tell the other seconds of this news. Also, thank you Flight through the Forest, Moon, and little Starlit Night for volunteering for such a risky mission. Especially as you didn't have to: I try to only put the strongest of us in such danger as they are most likely to return. I will be sure that you are honoured at Nightmeal for your bravery." Ice and Bone lifted their forewings and ducked their heads, and although I had no idea why, I decided to copy them. With that the leader hopped into the air and flew away.

I exhaled in relief.

"What was that all about?" I demanded.

"Well, we can't just disappear for a day, and we couldn't perform the insertion here, could we? We needed an excuse to go off, so that we could create you, somewhere far enough away that nobody would notice the spaceship that you were delivered in, but close enough so as not to arouse suspicion." I understood now. The four of them (or rather, the three of them and Flight, who no longer existed) had set off on some mission or other in order to put me into my new body.

"I know that. But, I mean, what was all that about the Flatplants and dispersals and Nightmeal?"

I was still unbearably curious.

"Well, do you remember the huge plant with the flat boughs, the one that you first woke up on?" Of course I did. How could I forget such an ideal living-place?

"Yes, the tall, long one."

"That's a Flatplant. We were asked to search for one, a place for dispersals to live until they could start another colony."

"What?" I asked, confused. She sighed, and continued in a tone as if she was explaining something to a baby for the tenth time.

"When the colony gets too crowded, and there are too many of us, the leaders gather together an unrelated group of young adult males and females. These are known as dispersals. They then fly off, to a Flatplant or similar plant in which they can live until there are enough of them to build a structure like this one. Then, they start a new colony. It's how this species expands. Tonight, we were on a mission to find such a plant."

"But I don't understand. We did find a Flatplant! You lied to her!"

"Shhh! Somebody will hear you and we'll all be killed!" I ducked my head in apology. "I had to lie to her. Not only would we be unable to create any new souls if she colonized the hiding-place, but that would also make it infinitely more difficult to take over this planet. Think about it. We'd have to go through all this again, just with a different colony. It would take millennia to properly open this planet for settling if we let her send off the dispersals." I understood now. However, I still hated deceiving this Ulkra who had this irrational power over me: I wanted to be truthful to her, I wanted to help her. _Don't be stupid._ I thought to myself. _That's just the host talking._

"You didn't answer one of my questions," I reminded her. "What's Nightmeal? And why will we be honoured at it?"

"Oh, right. How to explain this so you understand... During the night, all of the Ulkra collect food (Unless they have something more important to be doing, like we did tonight) and deposit it in a pile at the top of the colony. In theory, the food is then shared equally between all the inhabitants of the colony twice every rotation of this planet, at Nightmeal and Daymeal. In practice, it is shared very unequally, the highest ranking eating the most. It's very unfair. That's why we'll all be taking our food back to an empty nest and sharing it out equally between the four of us. I wouldn't want you and Bone to have to go hungry. However, at this Nightmeal the leader has promised that we will all be given more food than usually applies to our rank, as a reward for going on a dangerous mission."

"Ha! I could have done that in my sleep," sniggered Ice, his voice less scathing now that it shook with amusement, but his words pierced like knives. I'd found it difficult to fly that far.

"But I imagine that for Bone it was quite a challenge." Latea added diplomatically, though she clearly agreed with Ice. Bone grumbled, and muttered something that sounded like '...thinks she's so superior...'

I had sympathy for Bone. Being a child on a planet was very irritating, especially with the limits it put on your intellectual and physical ability. The most annoying part of infancy, though, was the condescending remarks that other adults made, or when they made special allowances for you because you were a 'little kid' and 'needed looking after'. Often I had contemplated violence when somebody cooed at me. But by far the most infuriating thing was that I was actually older than most of them!

"So, what now?" I asked.

"Well, judging by the second moon, I'd say it's about time for Nightmeal." Latea answered.


End file.
